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Newcastle battled clear of the Guinness Premiership relegation dogfight to leave Northampton and Worcester scrapping it out with a hard-fought 16-7 victory over the Saints at Kingston Park on Sunday.

Northampton spurned the chance of a losing bonus point when they decided against kicking a relatively straightforward penalty to go for line-out catch and drive which failed.

And head coach Paul Grayson admitted: “I think we maybe should have taken the three points and the bonus point, but if you look back over the season there are lots of ifs and buts. The boys took the decision on the field for good or bad and you have to live with it.”

He added: “It’s going to be hard for us now with two games left. This was a golden opportunity to put pressure on Worcester, but we were up against a side also fighting for their lives and you couldn’t expect them to roll over.

“It wasn’t a a marvellous game of rugby but you couldn’t fault the effort and I don’t agree the players have given it up as lost cause. They’ll keep swinging right until the end.

“People have to be accountable for what’s happened this season and hold up their hands and the players and the coaching staff are holding up their hands pretty high.

“It’s not yet a lost cause, but it’s going to be tough because next week we’re at Wasps, then we have the Heineken Cup semi-final and we finish at home to London Irish.

“This is not a time for beating ourselves up and we have to put this defeat behind us and we must stay in touch and go into the last game against London Irish with a chance of staying up.”

Newcastle, with home games against Gloucester and Bath, could finish seventh in the Premiership and director of rugby John Fletcher said: “We didn’t play that well. We looked nervous and lost our shape pretty quickly despite Toby Flood’s early try which we should have built on.

“We dropped off a lot of tackles, but scrambled well and our workrate – especially Jonny Wilkinson, Ben Woods and Jamie Noon – was fantastic. I suppose I’m happy. It lifts a bit of the stress and I suppose we can relax a bit and push on.”